Friday, June 3, 2011

Beware the Google steamroller

Beware the Google steamroller

Google spends quite a bit of time trying to convey to people it's not just a search engine.

And judging by the raft of new products it released in the last month, it's doing a good job. Google’s vision is for a “100 per cent web” world. Why? Because if people are online it’s easier to advertise to them, which is where Google makes the majority of its revenue.

It therefore makes sense that Google’s foray into the notebook space is the Chromebook, a device tied to the web and untied from operating systems that allow you to work while offline.
The Chromebook changes the playing field for notebooks, and capitalises on the ‘always on’ world we’re becoming accustomed to.

I wonder if the Chromebook was dreamed up during a Google staffer’s ’20 per cent time’ – the one day a week Google engineers get to spend working on projects that aren't necessarily in their job descriptions.
Google says the time can be used to develop something new, or fix something that's broken. The Chromebook certainly qualifies as new.